It’s time to act boldly on climate change, easing the terrifying cost of being young

It’s time to act boldly on climate change, easing the terrifying cost of being young

By Claire Halloran
Saturday, February 3, 2018

While Massachusetts students have hoped for a few snow days every winter for generations – canceled classes means a chance to play – extreme weather events resulting from climate change have begun to interfere with education worldwide with unsettling frequency. In India, thousands of schools closed recently due to unhealthy levels of air pollution. In California, schools shuttered because of winter blazes of unprecedented size. On the East Coast, we recently remembered the five-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy and the shutdowns it caused.

Study after study and article after article warn of the bleak financial future my generation will inherit. From debilitating student debt to stagnant salaries and a vanishing safety net, millennials are in trouble; human-caused global warming only compounds the problem – potentially costing my generation an additional $8.8 trillion in lifetime income. If no action is taken to reduce carbon pollution, a 21-year-old today could be poorer by $126,000 in their lifetime.